Posted by admin on September 15, 2010 under Jeffs Blog | 
You need many things on a diet; Focus, Determination, Self-Control, Accountability and a love/hate relationship with your scale.
This is not a scientific discussion, these are my views as I trudge through the valley of diet, but I think it’s important to get out there – your weight will fluctuate.
If you don’t have much self-esteem before you start a diet, you need to buy or rent some, because you will need it – for your weigh in days.
Some people say you should only weigh once a week, and I somewhat agree. As long as you are keeping close tabs on your calorie intake and exercise, yes. However if you’ve had a string of “off the chart” visits to the “Cupcake King” then the shock on weigh in day will be of your own making.
However, let’s look at the possible worth of weighing in daily. You will need understanding of how your body handles and adjusts to your diet and fitness routine. and give you opportunity to tweak your routine to get the maximum benefit. Again, my thought.
As you exercise and (hopefully) build muscle, muscle weighs more than fat, so that is one culprit of temporary weight gain, even if you have help religious-like fervor to your routine. Salt intake and water retention is another culprit is another. Morning ‘ahem’ rituals can change weight from 1/2 to 1 1/2 pounds. There are other factors, as well.
It is important to weigh yourself at the same time of day. That way your body will be in the same ’state’, so to take away any other reasons of weight fluctuation. I want to discuss one more I stumbled upon somewhere.
Even food and liquid that has no calories has weight. So, even if you have been very good calorie-wise, that low or no calorie food/drink added weight to you. Sure, it will digest, but that could be another factor in the weight fluctuation enigma, too.
One final thought is that your body is a masterful creation that is fine-tuned to keep you alive. If you eat the same food and do the same exercise routine everyday, your body will start to ’say,’ “Hey, this it the new routine, and may keep some food ‘for the winter,’” so it is a good idea to have a higher calorie day (within reason) and/or a change in your exercise/cardio routine. You need to change things around, so your body doesn’t settle into a routine. That will help, too.
So, what are your thoughts on weight fluctuation during a diet?
Posted by admin on August 19, 2010 under Jeffs Blog |
So after a few weeks of re-dieting under my belt, I have some tips to share.
I am not a doctor, nor a nutritionist, I’m just a guy that needs to lose weight and get healthy. These are my views based on my experience and what I’ve read. Consult your doctor if you have specific questions, and follow their direction.
Okay, your body has a number of drives, and one is to eat to survive. It’s very strong. Don’t believe me, go into a buffet in starvation mode – you will eat everything in sight.
You’re body does a great job of telling you when it’s hungry – your stomach will growl and/or you will “feel” hungry. That is normal.
Food is fuel. Some food has what you need to survive and get stronger, healthier, or not. It’s your choice what you put into it.
Would you pour Coke into your car’s gas tank? People do that all the time. Your car needs gasoline to run, and your body needs proper fuel to keep in tip top shape.
We will not discuss eating good food, but suffice it to say, most of us are don’t prepare the right foods to keep handy, and so we are tempted and caught by high calorie food traps that are cheap and easy when we are hungry.
When you are hungry, something sweet will quickly quell the hungry feeling, and you will feel a spike of energy. However, it is short lived and you will feel tired, hungry and yearning more added sugar in a shorter period of time. That is a cycle I am far too familiar with, but there is another way.
Sugar is quickly assimilated in our bodies, but complex foods (like vegetables) that have fiber take more time to be broken down, and thus help us to feel fuller longer. Here is a webpage with foods that have a higher fiber content: http://commonsensehealth.com/Diet-and-Nutrition/High_Fiber_Food_Chart.shtml
Besides the time it takes to assimilate the food we eat, there is also the fact of filling up our stomach when it is empty. Water is a perfect first line of defense. It is liquid, and nothing else. If you drink a sugared soda (bottled tea, too), it is liquid, yes, but you are also introducing sugar into your body, and the sugar craving will cause you to want more sugar in a short amount of time.
My advice if you feel hungry and it’s no where near a meal or snack time, drink a large glass of water – just water and see how you feel. You may have to give your stomach a few minutes to react, but it is something that has helped me.
We talked about the cues our body gives to tell us that we are hungry, but there is also a cue that our body gives us that we are full. It may be hard to “hear,” but it is there doing its job.
Eat slower, and get to know the cues that your stomach is full. Some people set the fork down in between bites, others have conversations through the meal. Whatever will help, try it.
Larger portioned meals throw us off many times. We want to finish it all, because we don’t want to waste anything. Wasting isn’t a crime, but being unhealthy can be deadly. Portion control is key, and it can be the hardest part of any diet.
Learn to stop eating when you are full. As you get farther into the diet, your stomach will shrink and you will realize you don’t need to eat (or overeat, actually) as much as you did.
So, what is the diet game? It’s listening and learning your stomach cues. Train your body to a 3 meal and 2 snack eating routine. Try to eat only when you should, integrating more fiber and fruits and vegetables into your diet. When you feel extremely hungry, try drinking water before eating something. If you try these tricks, you may have an easier time cutting back on your caloric intake and not be a slave to the extreme hunger feelings that lead to quick, easy, bad choices that are all around us.
Posted by admin on August 16, 2010 under Jeffs Blog |
As some of you may know, my wife Colleen and I are crawling out of the pit of being overweight and out of shape. The next few blog posts will deal with points that were important to the path we chose to take. This involved what we are eating now.
I don’t like to think ahead and prepare my food, but I remembered that food was fuel, not just calorie numbers for a daily calorie intake sheet.
A bit of background, I am a skeptic. I check out what I do as much as possible, and rarely fall in line with “the crowd”. Just sayin’
I’ve know healthy eaters, vegans, etc, and the one thing I’ve known about them is their almost ‘religious’ declaration about restaurants that a group would choose to go to, “I can’t go there..,” and then the attitude would come out. They remind me of “Mac” people, and some of those people’s attitude drive me crazy. Healthy eaters and vegans specifically would live a life of ‘bad’ food seclusion, taking clandestine trips to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to ‘eat right’. I don’t need that hassle, I had my meal bars, and fruit. I was fine. However, one day after an impassioned Facebook post about my leeriness concerning Organic food, a response posted, “Watch ‘Food Inc,’ and then we’ll talk”. Even with my aversion to a movie representing the ‘healthy’ eating attitude, I did cave in and watched the movie.
I’ve seen a number of documentaries, and I realize that there are slants, etc, but I was open to what they had to say.
I had known that eating at McDonald’s was much cheaper than eating healthier food, but to me there is more. Even the ‘healthy’ food has two tiers; 1. The regular food (meats, poultry, fruits and vegetables), and 2. The Organic food.
I assumed that fruit and vegetables were good for you, but now the truth is only Organic are REALLY good for you. I’ve heard all about the government verifying organic food, etc, but this is the same government that has been looking for the cause of Salmonella in a batch of spinach, then it was salsa, then is was… You get my meaning.
I saw the portions showing the raising, treatment and slaughter of Cattle, Chickens and Pigs. Okay, I get that. The best part of that was the farmer showing the cows he was raising to slaughter eating hay, and explaining that his way was much easier than the more costly way the larger meat companies add more and more chemicals to counteract the fecal matter introduced into the slaughter system, instead of fixing the problem.
I liked the movie, and got the message, but I still have some troubling thoughts. It was the same problem I had with the documentary ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?” In that documentary, it was persuading us from stop using oil, and use electric cars. I’m leery of not giving money to a middle-eastern oil company, only to give it to a greedy electric company. That’s off topic, but it ties in with my feeling with “Food Inc,” so we switch from fast food, and chemically raised food to just Organic, aren’t we still giving it to a corporation somewhere that may not hold up their end of the Organic bargain?
Colleen and I went to Whole Foods, and no “These are the Until Now, Unhealthy Eating Roneys” alarms went off, but I felt lost. It was a whole new world of terms like, “Grass fed,” “Fair trade,” “Organic,” etc. It’s like ordering at Starbucks, only on a larger scale. They need to hand you a guide when you walk in the store.
Colleen and I are eating healthier (Organic food, even), but I have no attitude. I still have my eyes peeled to watch the ‘Old Guard’ food companies who are tossing their hat into the Organic ring to make money, to see if they don’t mess things up for us.
